Initially, coax-based networks were limited to half duplex even as the coax medium was upgraded. By arranging the network in a star configuration (to a repeater hub), full duplex links could be supported, but required the physical reconfiguration and still had performance limitations. Although lower data rate star hub repeaters could be linked over short to moderate distances, e.g. 1 mile for 10 BaseT, multiple linked repeaters for higher data rates, e.g. 100BaseT, had a much more limited spacing.
Alternately as shown in the prior art configuration 20 of FIG. 1, a repeater 25 was connected to full duplex media by dedicating an entire switch 22 to each data terminal equipment (DTE). However, such network implementations are costly and ultimately inefficient, requiring the switch 22 and the repeater to be close (within half the collision diameter, or 100 meters for a 100 Mbps CSMA/CD).